In the field of active safety of a motor vehicle, contemporary driver assistance systems are already able to perform driving tasks of the driver of a motor vehicle and to carry out partially automated or partially autonomous driving functions. This is manifest in the examples of adaptive cruise control or lane assist or heading control.
However, these driver assistance systems are not configured for partial or total failure of the driver of the motor vehicle. Such failure of the driver to carry out the driving functions for which he is responsible can be caused, for example, by excessive fatigue or by a suddenly occurring health problem of the driver. Excessive fatigue often brings about momentary nodding off and an associated brief loss of control of the vehicle. A health problem is understood here to be physical incapacity of the driver to control the motor vehicle, and can be caused, for example, by a sudden heart attack. Such situations often lead to serious accidents, in particular if the vehicle is moving at a high speed on a freeway or a road similar to a freeway.
Since such situations which result in accidents also occur as a result of health problems, in particular heart problems and circulation problems, of relatively old people, the BMFT (German Ministry for Education and Research) started the SmartSenior project which has the purpose of developing technical measures for helping elderly people to continue to participate in everyday life. Within the scope of this project, an emergency stopping assistant was developed for ensuring a motor vehicle is stopped safely in the event of a sudden incapacity of the driver of the vehicle to drive.
Illustrative embodiments provide a method and a device, wherein a vehicle traveling at high speed is transferred into a driving state with a reduced risk of the consequences of a collision when it is assumed that the driver is experiencing an emergency and wherein the complexity of the sensor system employed is reduced.